The Ecclesiastical Organization
The Ecclesiastical Organization
Many scholars believe that the understanding of church life that is presupposed in these letters could not have appeared during Paul’s lifetime. Specifically they see a strongly organized church with an ordained ministry.
We should first notice that Paul seems to have had some interest in the ministry, for he and Barnabas appointed elders in the churches they had founded (Acts 14:23), and again he writes to the bishops and deacons at Philippi as well as to the saints there (Phil. 1:1).
Second, to find an interest in the ministry in the Pastorals we must exclude 2 Timothy, for in that letter there is nothing about an ordained ministry or any form of church organization. Paul does speak of God’s χαρισμα (charisma, G5922) which is in Timothy through the laying on of his hands (2 Tim. 1:6), but this may well be the equivalent of the later confirmation rather than of ordination (it leads on to thoughts of "power, of love and of self-discipline,” which are just as relevant to the Christian life as to the Christian ministry). In Titus there is a direction to "appoint elders in every town” (Titus 1:5) and an indication of the kind of people who should be made elder or bishop (the two terms appear to denote the same office). It is in 1 Timothy that we get any considerable teaching about the ministry. Here we find mention of the qualities that are to be sought in bishops and deacons (1 Tim. 3) and an indication that elders are honored persons, to be treated with respect and to be paid for their work (1 Tim. 5:17-20). The elder seems clearly to be equated with the bishop in Titus 1:5-7, and there is nothing in the other two letters to indicate any other system. Despite the inferences drawn by some, there is really nothing in any of the Pastorals that demands any more organization than the "bishops [NIV, overseers] and deacons” of Philippians 1:1. Against a second-century date is the writer’s concentration on the qualities looked for in elders and deacons. By the second century these would surely have been well known, whereas it would have been useful to have them spelled out in the days of Paul. There is also a "list of widows” (1 Tim. 5:9), but it is not clear what this means (in any case, widows seem to have had a special place from the beginning [Acts 6:1]). Clearly none of this amounts to much in the way of organization, certainly to nothing more than can have appeared in the church in comparatively early days. 15